Gojirathon 26: Gojira X Mekagojira (2002)

G: minus 3 days

Gojirathon is me just writing up some thoughts about the movies I see while I conduct my little marathon of Godzilla-movies in anticipation of the new Hollywood retooling. Why Gojirathon and not Godzillathon? Well, because Rolfe already did his Godzillathon as part of his Monster Madness, and I don’t want to steal his work. I’ll be using the terms, G, Big G, Godzilla and Gojira somewhat interchangeably… since I can be a bit lazy at times, when it comes to these things.

Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla (2002)

I’ll try to blaze past these last entries with as little text as possible. (Again, I need to make it through these final three in a day).

Yet again the timeline is reset. Now the cannon events are the first Godzilla 1954, then the standalone Mothra-film (not to be confused with the one with Godzilla) and then there’s what I think looked like the strange creature they call Frankenstein but I don’t remember it’s name. Anyways. This explains the Masers (a device I’ve always wondered where they originated from. It seems it’s from the standalone Mothra film). So after a short briefing of the timeline we get to the action almost immediately.

Well, almost. There’s a sequence of events where they create the new Mechagodzilla (If we go by the naming-convention of the last americanization of the title, does that mean that this entry is supposed to be Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla III: The Domination?) Now it’s outfitted with Masers in it’s mouth, stacks of Gundam-Missiles (Missiles that fire in every direction but the way towards it’s target only to ark its way toward it’s intended destination in a fashion that is totally impractical, but totally cool) and the newly invented Absolute Zero gun. A weapon that freezes it’s target close to absolute zero before disintegrating it into particles.

The human part of the story centers around another female soldier of the anti-godzilla force (now called JXSDF) who also gets her superior officer killed (what is it with the filmmakers and their distrust of female soldiers?). This one get’s a demotion though and spends the next three years as a librarian clerk. So of course this, now almost suicidally depressed person without a lick of military experience for years is the best bet for commanding the new superweapon of mass destruction. So she gets the job on the grounds of “3 years is enough punishment”.

The other half is about a father and daughter who are recruited to build Mechagodzilla from the basis of the 1954-Godzillas bones. A decision that proves to make for some unforeseen problems. Of course the three of them form an unlikely family. She regains her will to live and the daughter regains a mother-figure.

Mechagodzilla initially fails almost fatally during the first skirmish as its bones refuses to move when it hears the roar of it’s distant relative before it. But after a thorough brain-washing of the bone-structure the real battle commences.

It’s sort of standard fare godzilla story here. But the addition of a malfunctioning Mechagodzilla who goes total berserk after it’s bones are momentarily re-awakened brought something interesting to the mix as we watch the humans who in turn witness in horror the mechanical creation they created wreaking almost more havoc than the creature it was supposed to defeat. I’m no expert by all means on giant robot films. But I found it very reminiscent of the berserk-scenes in NGE. Though the influence could be from another source.

Now, this film was surprisingly short with its almost 90 min runtime and a good chunk of it was spent on that last battle. I for one liked it. It gave us what we came to see. Godzilla and Mechagodzilla duking it out in a miniature city. The only thing I’m not really pleased with would probably be the physics of the flying vehicles. That’s something that they have been struggling with for all the films. They just can’t seem to get them right… Though at least Godzilla looks awesome again.